Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Thinks He Could Have Helped NASCAR Avoid Lawsuit: “It Isn’t That F—ing Hard”

Sounds like NASCAR needs a dose of common sense in their front office…and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is probably the man who could have helped them.

In case you somehow missed it, NASCAR has been in court the past week and a half defending themselves from an antitrust lawsuit filed by two teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.

The antitrust lawsuit accuses NASCAR of using unlawful conduct to protect its monopoly on premier stock car racing, with the teams taking issue with (among other things) the charter deal offered by the series back in 2024 and the fact that NASCAR owns the majority of the tracks it races at, while having exclusivity agreements with those tracks to prevent a viable competitor series from forming.

It’s been an explosive couple of weeks, and at times has been pretty embarrassing for NASCAR and its executives.

Before the trial even started, text messages were revealed between NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps calling team owner Richard Childress a “stupid redneck” and that he needs to be “taken out back and flogged.”

And during the trial, Phelps and other NASCAR executives have been forced to face team owners like Childress and Joe Gibbs Racing President Heather Gibbs who testified that NASCAR “had a gun to their head” and forced them to sign a charter agreement that they felt was unfair by sending them an agreement and forcing them to sign it within hours while threatening to take their charters if they didn’t agree.

It’s a big mess for NASCAR, made worse by the fact that 23XI is owned by one of the most famous athletes in the world, Michael Jordan, who testified in the trial late last week.

No matter who wins, the lawsuit and trial have done serious damage to NASCAR’s public perception, especially after seeing communications from NASCAR executives that shows them seemingly working against – and insulting – the teams that it relies on week in and week out to put on a show.

And Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes it all could have been avoided.

Of course Junior has been retired for a while now, but he still remains a team owner in the O’Reilly Auto Parts (formerly Xfinity) Series, and he’s still one of the most popular figures and best advocates and voices for the sport. And today on his podcast, Dale Jr. Download, he and his sister Kelley Earnhardt-Miller discussed the lawsuit and its impact on the sport.

Earnhardt said he was extremely disappointed in the texts from NASCAR executives bashing Richard Childress:

“I was very disappointed in some of the comments made about individuals in the sport, particularly Richard Childress, a guy that’s just done so much. I know there’s a lot of different opinions about Richard out there in the fanbase, but I know what this guy’s sacrified and how much he’s ivnested himself and his life into the sport…

I would like to figure out whatever it is, whether it’s repercussions – that just can’t go unanswered.”

Of course Childress was the owner of the #3 car that Junior’s dad Dale Earnhardt drove to 7 Cup Series championships, so it’s no doubt hard for Junior to hear NASCAR execs talking like that about someone who means so much to his family, his dad, and the sport’s popularity.

And he also laid out his vision for what he would have liked to see happen to avoid the whole mess:

“Give the teams more money per year, give them something that they’re very happy about… Set a spending cost limit, and then sign – do not make the charters permanent, but sign a deal where it’s long-term and it’s a percentage of whatever the TV deal is…

I don’t know why that didn’t happen… I’m sure NASCAR had a purpose or reason, but I don’t know what it might be.”

He also thinks that he could have helped NASCAR avoid the whole situation altogether by showing a little more respect to the teams:

“What I would want [NASCAR owner Jim France] to do is to be able to compromise and be able to get to a good middle ground with the teams. From what I’ve read in these court records and so forth he’s been pretty stubborn…

I’m telling you, if me and Kelley were in those meetings, I feel like that we could have made a difference, because reading all this s–t that went on over the last couple of years – it isn’t that f–king hard. It isn’t. It just seems like this was completely avoidable.”

Amen. Let’s hope NASCAR learns their lesson sooner rather than later. And hey, it’s not too late to settle the case and land this plane before it comes crashing down if they lose.

The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. Says He Thinks He Could Have Helped NASCAR Avoid Lawsuit: “It Isn’t That F—ing Hard” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.